30 Before Thirty: update

I'm slowly getting closer to my reading goal for my 30 before Thirty list. With a little over a year left on the clock, I have 10 books left to go!

So here's the updated list:

O1. The End of America

O2. The Omnivore's Dilemma

O3. French Bull Dogs

O4. Your Money or Your Life **

O5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

O6. Mr. Darcy's Diary

O7. Scott Pilgrim series*

O8. thrift

O9. Living Rich by Spending Smart

1O. Money Girl's Smart Moves to Deal With Your Debt

11. The American Frugal Housewife

12. The New Frugality

13. The Cheapskate Next Door

14. Ghostly Awakening (This link was taken down for some reason. Not sure why it's gone.)

15. Green With Envy

16. Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef

17. No Impact Man

18. STUFF

19. The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking

20. Food Rules

18-20 were read pretty quickly thanks to the illness that took me down for 2 full weeks. I didn't have time to craft, but I had time to read.

STUFF was fascinating (and borrowed from the library). Those who know me well enough know how I feel about our culture's current point-and-stare obsession with hoarding: I find it distasteful, to say the least. Reading a book about the most current information on the affliction was enlightening and updated my own store of information. Being an information geek, I like being current when going on my Know It All streaks. It also confirmed what I already intuited: these clean-out shows are traumatic to the hoarder involved and ultimately, pointless. I hope our obsession with hoarding soon fades and the TV shows devoted to it get cancelled. (Seeing my counterparts talk about how watching these shows to motivate themselves to clean makes me want to projectile vomit on them.)

The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking is one that I bought. I'm on the fence about how I feel about this; I'm apparently a bit higher up on the homemaking pecking order than I originally thought. Meaning, quite a bit of the information in it was not really meant for me, but for those who are truly being introduced to the idea of eating at home and making one's own food, doing laundry, mending, cleaning without toxic cleaners, etc. It did have a few nifty tips in it that I hadn't encountered before, but I'm not sure it's worth keeping. I was expecting a few recipes or a bit more in-depth information. This book was more of a super basic overview to what goes into making a home. I've peeked at the author's blog before and found it more informative, so I guess I assumed the book would be as well.

Food Rules took me less than 2 hours to read and is another book I own. I really enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma, but this book of Pollan's left me going, "really?" As in, I really spent money to buy this when most of it is common sense? (To anyone who has already started unplugging from the industrial food system, anyway.) And I really spent the money to have to read more wank about the obesity "epidemic"? Again, maybe if someone is less acquainted with the topic, it might be revolutionary. For me, it was a waste of time and money. Pity.